Dr. Sandra Stotsky is credited with developing one of the country’s strongest sets of academic standards for K-12 students as well as the strongest academic standards and licensure tests for prospective teachers while serving as Senior Associate Commissioner in the Massachusetts Department of Education from 1999-2003. She is also known nation-wide for her in-depth analyses of the problems in Common Core’s English language arts standards. Her current research ranges from the deficiencies in teacher preparation programs and teacher licensure tests to the deficiencies in the K-12 reading curriculum and the question of gender bias in the curriculum. She is regularly invited to testify or submit testimony to state boards of education and state legislators on bills addressing licensure tests, licensure standards, and Common Core’s standards (e.g., Utah, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, South Carolina, and Texas). She currently serves on several committees for the International Dyslexia Association and on the advisory board for Pioneer Institute’s Center for School Reform. She served on the National Validation Committee for the Common Core State Systemic Initiative (2009-2010), on the National Mathematics Advisory Panel (2006-2008), co-authoring its final report as well as two of its task group reports, on the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (2006-2010), and on the Steering Committee in 2003-2004 for the framework for the National Assessment of Educational Progress reading assessments for 2009 onward. Her major publications include The Death and Resurrection of a Coherent Literature Curriculum (Rowman & Littlefield, 2012); Literary Study in Grades 9, 10, and 11: A National Survey (Association of Literary Scholars, Critics, and Writers, 2010); What’s at Stake in the K-12 Standards Wars: A Primer for Educational Policy Makers (Peter Lang, 2000); and Losing Our Language (Free Press, 1999, reprinted by Encounter Books, 2002).

Dr. R. James Milgram, professor of mathematics at Stanford University, received his B.S. and M.S. from the University of Chicago, and his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. He has given lectures around the world and has been a member of numerous boards and committees, including the National Board of Education Sciences, a body created by the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 “to advise and consult with the Director of the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) on agency policies.”

Dr. Milgram is the author of “An Evaluation of CMP,” “A Preliminary Analysis of SAT-I Mathematics Data for IMP Schools in California,” and “Outcomes Analysis for Core Plus Students at Andover High School: One Year Later.” This latter paper is based on a statistical survey undertaken by Gregory Bachelis, professor of mathematics at Wayne State University. Each of these papers identifies serious shortcomings in the mathematics programs: CMP, Core-Plus, and IMP.

Ze’ev Wurman was a U.S. Department of Education official under George W. Bush and is currently an executive with MonolithIC 3D Inc.

Ze’ev Wurman was a U.S. Department of Education official under George W. Bush and is currently an executive with MonolithIC 3D Inc. In 2010 Wurman served on the California Academic Content Standards Commission that evaluated the suitability of Common Core for California.